Spending My Retirement In A Game

And after the, actually entirely unenjoyable, awkward breakfast, Benjamin chose to show Kyle around the house a little bit with Sophia and Benji coming along of course.

"Urgh, sorry about that. Mom and Dad always make me eat that stuff…Thanks to Grampa you probably had a pretty good meal, though…" Sophia apologized to Kyle, who quickly shook his head as he moved his hair out of his face.

"No no, it's fine, really it is! It ended up pretty good though. And is that why you always buy something at the bagel place near the school?" Kyle whispered to make sure Sophia's parents didn't hear before the teenage girl quickly nodded. "Mhm. They're a lil' bit nuts if I'm gonna be honest…"

"You can say that again… They were shooting Grampa all kinda dirty looks as well." Benji said with a nod before the old man himself began shaking his head.

"Stop talking about them like that, please. Melody and Michael want everyone to eat healthily, can't blame them for that. Although it wasn't really for me either in the end, so I changed it up a bit, but you shouldn't be so mean to them." Benjamin told them, before Benji and Sophia sighed loudly, only slowly nodding in response.

"Erm… anyway… You have a pretty nice house, Mr-…sorry, Benjamin." Kyle said, trying to quickly change the topic before the old man began to smile softly. "Thank you, Kyle. It was a lot of hard work, so I'd hope for it to be nice like this. Well, Sophia told me you're into games, right?" Benjamin asked before Kyle quickly nodded and began to speak, saying something that immediately made the old man understand why Sophia was grinning so brightly right now.

"Oh, definitely! I can't wait for the Digital Immersion Capsule from Prime Industries to finally come out! I heard that 'World of Magic' is a game like no other ever before! In games I'm usually a production class, or rather, I focus on production aspects, and I heard that the crafting in that game is supposed to be incredibly amazing, so I'm excited to try it out!" Kyle said in a slight rant before Benjamin quietly chuckled.

"Is that so? Then I'm sure you'll be excited for- Oi, Natsuo, I said no fiddling with the insides of the capsule!" Benjamin yelled as he opened the door to his room, where he wanted to show Kyle the capsule and instead saw his oldest son holding one of the cover-plates of the DiCap in his hand while his other was coming closer to the actual wiring.

"Hehe, sorry…" Natsuo responded as he scratched the back of his head with a light cheeky smirk, "I just couldn't really resist…"

"Then try resisting harder, there's some important stuff going on that I need to take care of in there tonight, so I'd prefer it if I can get there," Benjamin told his son. Who slowly nodded and began looking closer at what was inside of the panel, before the old man himself sighed loudly and looked back at Kyle, who was staring at the machine in wonder.

"Y-You have a capsule?! What?! How? When?" The usually so shy boy exclaimed, looking over at Benjamin before remembering the trailer. "Wait, you're Eisen..? I thought you looked familiar, but…"

And now, as a quite obvious brag, Benji moved his hand through his hair, looking at the capsule with a smirk before speaking up. "And your very own recent High-School graduate right here is going to start playing in only one week as well, isn't that right, Grampa?"

Confused, now both Sophia and Kyle stared at Benji before the young woman protested. "Wait, what're you saying? The game's coming out in two weeks!" She exclaimed before the old man standing next to them, softly chuckled.

"The five 'Originals' that you've heard about in the trailer, which includes me, have a few privileges. One of them is that we can recommend one person to be allowed to play the game earlier than the majority of the populace. And for that, I recommended Benji as a graduation present for him." Benjamin explained, before Sophia began to pout as she crossed her arms.

"What? So unfair! Did you think about me at all when you made that decision?" She asked before Benjamin placed his hand on the top of her head and smirked lightly. "Sorry, if I had another recommendation to give out, I'd give it to you."

"Hehe, but he doesn't, so only I'll be joining him for the time being," Benji said with a grin before he felt a light pain in the back of his head after being smacked by his grandfather.

"Shut it; I can still revoke the recommendation whenever I want." He warned jokingly, and Benji scratched the top of his head with a smirk. "Sorry, sorry… But yeah, I'll probably start playing and do a little bit here and there. I still don't have any idea what to do there…"

"And I already told you, that's fine. You can do whatever you want. Brody might teach you some combat skills if you ask him nicely, and you know that I'll always teach you anything related to crafting." The old man told his grandson, who swiftly nodded before Kyle hurriedly spoke up. "Wait, so you are a crafter? As in, a real blacksmith or something?"

Before Benjamin himself could answer, Natsuo, who was still removing some of the plastic panels from the capsule, answered Kyle's question. "Not 'or something.' He is a 'real' blacksmith. And a tailor. He made my wedding suit and my wife's wedding dress, and on top of that, he even made the watch I'm still wearing to this day. Oh, and he also made our wedding rings…Dad, did I ever pay you for any of that?" The man asked as he pushed his glasses up his nose a bit more, suddenly feeling somewhat guilty for some reason.

With a sigh, the old man then answered him as he shook his head. "No, you did not. But it's fine, and I offered to do all of that, right? Anyway, Kyle, come on. I'll show you my workshop." Benjamin exclaimed as he once more reminded Natsuo not to fiddle around with anything other than the plastic covers, before the old man brought the three teenagers with him to the other side of the house, slowly opening the door to his workshop.

"I'm not in here all that much these days, but a few years back, I'd be here whenever I wasn't sleeping," Benjamin told them before he turned on the light switch. Revealing an ample space in front of them, which included everything one may need to make almost anything and everything. On a wall next to the door were some of the different things that Benjamin had made throughout his years that he didn't end up selling. Either because a customer canceled the order last minute and he didn't feel like quitting halfway through, or because they were simple prototypes or things he made for himself as practice for different techniques.

Other than that, there were a lot of different workstations set up with all the tools one may ever need, although all the materials that Benjamin used to keep there were now gone since he sold them after realizing he wouldn't be able to use them anymore.

"You can take a look around, just be careful, and don't play around with anything," Benjamin warned them, especially Kyle, as the teenager excitedly took a step further into the room.

"Whoa! So cool…" Kyle exclaimed as he began to look through all the different things that were laying around in here, and Benjamin chose to tell some stories about anything stored in here whenever Kyle seemed especially interested. And at some point, Benjamin asked one of the questions he was curious about for a while now.

"Would this kind of thing be something you would be interested in doing as a job?" The old man inquired before Kyle looked at him in surprise.

"Erm…Kind of…but my Dad wants me to study and go to college for a degree. And I don't even know if I'd be any good at it…" He explained before Sophia hit the side of his shoulder again like the tomboy she was. "Oh, nonsense. You know you'd be good at this kinda stuff. At the very least, you're good at making clothes 'n' stuff, right? I mean, you made the shirt you're wearing from scratch, right?" She said, and Benjamin leaned in closer to take a look at the shirt, while Kyle's face began flushing red because even Benji was curiously coming a bit closer to take a look.

And indeed, Benjamin could see that Kyle's shirt was handmade. It maybe wasn't as high quality as one might see at even an average clothes shop, but it fit Kyle perfectly, and at first glance, it didn't look like an amateur made it, so Benjamin ended up being quite impressed.

"Huh, interesting. I know some Tailors near where you live, so I could give them a call if you're be interested to start working in that kinda area." Benjamin offered, but Kyle quickly shook his head.

"No, no! It's fine! I'm just going to do what my Dad tells me to; it's better that way. Besides, I'm not sure if I would want to work as a Tailor anyway. I mean, it's what I'm best at right now, but that's because sewing is the easiest to do without any special tools…And cloth can be pretty cheap as well.." Kyle pointed out before the old man nodded slowly.

"I can see what you mean. You only need a needle, thread, and cloth to make something like that. But well, you said you'd start playing the game when it comes out, right?" Benjamin asked before Kyle quickly nodded.

"Mhm, I already preordered the capsule. My Dad is actually for it because he said the time dilation could be used for studying…" He answered before Sophia crossed her arms jealously. "Lucky, Mom and Dad are against me buying it, even if I pay for it on my own… Although I'm not so jealous about the studying part…" She said before Benjamin frowned deeply.

"Wait, why that? Nevermind, I think I know why they don't want you to play…but they are still allowing it in the end, right?" The old man asked, and Sophia slowly nodded. "Yeah, they are. But they'll probably say that I can only play for like an hour or two every day."

"You can play while sleeping, so you shouldn't need to worry about that," Benjamin told them before the three teenagers looked at him in awe. "So you really can? That's insane, isn't it?" Sophia asked full of curiosity before the old man slowly nodded.

"Yeah, I know. Whenever you start playing, it's always like you're sleeping. I don't know how it all actually works, but it's quite fascinating." Benjamin explained, before looking back over at Kyle.

"But either way, it already seems like I'm about to take some apprentices in the game, so if you feel like it, you can come around some time as well, and I can show you a thing or two about some crafting techniques." He told him before the teenage boy quickly nodded. "That would be cool, thank you!" Kyle excitedly responded before Benji tilted his head to the side. "Wait, you're taking apprentices in the game? Is it one of those dudes that started playing today?" He asked before the old man shook his head.

"It's not any of the players I've met so far, believe it or not. It's three NPC boys. Nice kids." The old man explained, surprising everyone quite a bit, so Benjamin quietly chuckled and told the story as he continued showing the group of three teens around the room, while the three teenagers listened enraptured in Benjamins' storytelling in utter disbelief.